Peeping up girls’ skirts

Peeping up girls’ skirts what a naughty and yet tantalizing kick. I think it already had my interest at baby school. It’s amusing for me to see how it has always summarized the stirring appetite of men to see the treasures of women’s intimacy – treasures which they constantly try to hide from their nosey and indiscreet looks. But let me translate two verses of this delightful song by Alain Souchon (Under girls’ skirts), before I go any further:

“Retinas and pupils, boys’ eyes are shiningFor a fool’s game, peeping up girls’ skirtsAnd their whole life immersed in that big dealBy this fool’s game, peeping up girls’ skirts

Them, so proud, up their stepladdersWith a despising look and letting wind acting upThem in the suave, the weakness of men they knowThat the only spinning thing on earth is their light dresses ”

A way or another it always was a big deal for men to see under women’s skirts. We even have a special word for that in France, the glimpse of some woman’s panties up her skirt or dress is called “un jeton” (a token). Why is it called that? Don’t ask me, I couldn’t say. What I know is that some men dedicate some big voyeuristic efforts for that, and there are even famous Parisian spots to practice that kind of “hobby”. The Garnier Opera’s stairs being one.

At the time I was working near the Opera, I had the opportunity to observe a man playing this little game around these famous stairs. When the weather is fine, it’s absolutely usual that people (and a lot of women among them) sit there on the steps to rest, eat a sandwich, or just enjoy the show of our beautiful Paris around. I was sitting there myself one day when I could observe one acting as follow: He was walking around there, trying to seem as nonchalant as he could, and was finally sitting on the step just under the one of a sitting woman (wearing a skirt of course) – well, under but sufficiently aside for what will follow. He was then retrieving a little mirror out of his pocket, and using it as a rear-view mirror, he was giving himself a little show of what was happening under this unsuspecting woman’s skirt. And yes, you’re right if you think that he was what we all call a « Peeping Tom. » It could be funny by the way (and I’m sure it has been done) to review all the ingenious means men always found to spy under women’s dresses, from the 1900’s cane having a angle mirror at the end and lenses inside bringing the picture up the pommel, to the present micro cameras with which some voyeuristic geeks are now equipping shoes, bags, or whatever can be placed in ideal position under your dresses. So, beware Mesdames!

Now, what about women on that score? Do they have any appetite to steal some glimpse of our sexual baits? It’s a question I do address in Being French, because as far as sight is involved in building sexual desire, there usually was an important gender difference. As I humorously observe in the book, women have very rarely been caught peeping under Scottish men’s kilts! I also mentioned that the equivalent of Playboy for women in the 70/80s totally failed to thrive, my personal hunch about them being that if they were ever leafed in some ways it was probably much more by gay men.

Now, is that difference forgone and intangible? I don’t think so either. This world is changing, it’s changing fast. Images are more and more playing out in human relations, especially in the “love and sex” department. We are now heading for a world were images can be created and made available incredibly fast. The screens offering them are increasing in number: computers, smart phones, tablets, … images that have been just produced at the other end of the planet can reach you instantly. Having had many talks about that with women, I suspect that we owe to this new world to have made them more visual than they ever were in their approach of sensuality. So now, Scottish men touring in Paris, don’t say I didn’t warn you, if you come and sit on the Opera’s stairs, check that your knees hold tight, because nothing exclude anymore that some cheeky women come around to be peeping up your kilts!

And now, just for fun, let me end in showing how much the focus on women’s upskirts keeps on being a big deal, since media are all afflutered and buzzing as soon as one of our « star women » let go anything of the kind to be captured by the omnipresent cameras of our today’s world. One of the last « victim » of this relentless paparazzi’s quest being Eva Longoria who had some bad move while climbing the red stairs of Cannes’ Movies festival, revealing to a flabbergasted audience that she was wearing no panties!